Rose Golden Repair
by Madame Erianne
Summary: Kintsugi translates to golden joinery a form of pottery art in Japan. Sometimes however the repair artist is just a Librarian learning to heal her own wounds, and the pottery is an ages old broken immortal who just needs a bit of help realizing nothing is what it seems at first glance. Full Summary on AO3.
1. Chapter 1

Few people knew that Cassandra had once picked out her own death date. In fact that total was now only up to four people, two currently in the room with her. She looked over at the two men she'd come to see as brothers. It was weird how that only three years ago they'd been strangers and now they'd saved the world countless times and created a bond that was unshakeable even in the roughest situations.

Well almost all roughest situations.

Cassandra was currently sitting across the room from one, Jenkins Caretaker of the Library. All because those two brothers of hers had wormed out from her the reason she and Jenkins had been tense during the whole sun-dwelling vampire fiasco. When she finally told them she'd expect Jacob to be upset, she still feared he might hold a candle for her. It surprised her though when he merely smiled knowingly and gently punched her arm like he was congratulating her for doing something. What shocked her was Ezekiel's face afterwards, she couldn't tell if it had scrunched up in worry or in something else. She soon found out that the younger Librarian was still for all intents and purposes a teenager sometimes and simply freak out as most do when their older 'siblings' show interest in anyone. But what truly caught the young woman off guard was when the duo went straight to Flynn and Eve and told them.

When the boys had asked her the information, she remembered telling them to keep it to the group. Apparently she should have been more specific as to who was in that 'group'. Because now here she was, months after her surgery, after having poured her heart out to this immortal man and having him break it slightly then seem to repair it; only to in turn see his break after Charlene came back to the library for a day. It had hurt her just as much to see Jenkins in such pain after Charlene left them. But what hurt more was how Jenkins became more closed off than usual. To the point the others had noticed, and now armed with the knowledge of what had been discussed between Cassandra and the Caretaker, had dare – no forced- Cassandra to talk to him. Alone.

So Cassandra sat in her chair at the Annex's main room where she usually sat when Jenkins worked on things out there too. It was so quite she could hear his tools clinking against the metal contraption on his desk. Her crystalline blue eyes carefully watched his hand movements as she shifted in her seat her hand still open on the same page it had been for the past ten minutes while she gathered her courage to speak to him.

"Miss Cillian, I can hear you thinking from across the room. Is there something you wished to talk about?" Jenkins asked, his gruff voice easily carrying as he never stopped tinkering with the machine on his desk. Cassandra winced slightly at the use of that title when he spoke. He once in private seemed to care enough to call her Cassandra but after Charlene's death he just stopped. He reverted back to calling everyone by titles, formality firmly in place again. Once upon a time Cassandra would have done the same in turn but retaining her gift, her talks with Estrella had made her bold. She felt surer of herself lately, well minus her gift.

"Actually Jenkins I do. We- um rather I- I am worried about you. You've closed off after Charlene left and I am worried."

"I apologize for worrying you Miss Cillian I assure you I am fine." Jenkins started to pack up his things already sensing where this conversation might be heading. He was shocked when suddenly he looked up and Cassandra was no longer in across the room but in front of his desk.

"No. You're not. You're hurting and everyone can see it. I can see it. Why won't you let one of us help you? I doesn't have to be me. Talk to Eve. Maybe spar with Flynn and Cal or Jake. Banter with Ezekiel. But stop hiding." Cassandra pleaded with him, her penetrating the air around them. She moved around the desk as she saw him start to move at her.

"I am not hiding. How dare you even -"

"Jenkins but you are. You're not using our first names anymore. You don't joke. You just do what we ask and go on. We haven't even had a 'Big Story board Explanation' with you since then."

"You have no idea what I am going through. You have no right to even ask" Jenkins bellowed at her, his voice almost hoarse. He advanced on the younger woman until they were barely an inch apart. Cassandra was so startled by his movements she stood up ramrod straight.

"You're correct in that I have no idea what you are going through but you're wrong on that last part Jenkins. I do have a right, the right of someone who cares about you. You know how that feels right? To care about someone even if they don't care back. I just don't have you knight's tactic in asking or showing it. I'm a Librarian. I choose the path the fits me. But either way Jenkins, we are friends I thought, teammates even. I'm not an enemy. I just wanted to help." Cassandra said her eyes never wavering from his piercing hazel ones until she suddenly lost track of what she was going to ask him or say. By the end of her response her voice had petered to almost a whisper and she started to pull away turning to leave the immortal to his piece when she felt his arm on her wrist, so much like he had that night at the hospital before her surgery.

"Miss Cil- Cassandra. I – I don't know if I can explain how I feel right now. I was trained that emotions are something a knight works through on his own. I am not used to excepting help, but I can understand the uncomfortable spot I probably have put you in lately. For that I apologize greatly. I don't know if I will ever be comfortable talking about how I feel, about how Char-she left. But you do make a valid point. One I once made to Col. Baird when you all were trapped in that Carnival. So I am sorry and I will do my best to trust you with what is going on, if you promise to understand there are somethings things I cannot yet or might never share." Jenkins responded his voice scarcely above a whisper. Cassandra had turned around after he said her name, his hand never leaving her wrist though it seemed. He looked so much older than usual when she turned around to face him. The usually upturned lines across his jaw and cheek lines dropped, she now noticed the dark circles forming under his eyes and she frowned when she looked close enough to see the corners of his eyes had slight red tints to them.

"That's all I ask Jenkins, all we ask. Just learn to lean on us too okay? You always help us, let us return the favor sometimes okay?" Cassandra said moving closer to the taller Caretaker as she placed her free hand over his large one on her arm. She smiled when he nodded at her response and carefully lead them back to the other side of his desk. She nearly choked in happiness when he offered her the spare seat and he too sat down beside her to go to back to work on his machine.

"I promise I will try my best Cassandra. But first I also need my hand back so I can finish this. And perhaps while I do we can talk about something." Jenkins said softly his voice going back to its normal timber. Cassandra nodded, it wasn't a big step but it was still a step. "Oh and Cassandra, I'd thank you to keep our future discussions to just between us. I may be willing to trust you more, and maybe Col. Baird, but as for Misters Stone and Jones I rather they know less of my personal life. Makes it easier to tease them." Jenkins looked at Cassandra with a small smile at his lips.

"Of course Jenkins. Sorry. So um talking about something? What shall we talk about?" Cassandra said her last two sentences speeding off her tongue after getting a small almost glare from him at her old habit of apologizing for everything.

"How about you tell me how your gift is working now. Perhaps I can help you come up with a way to control or navigate it better. Or at least suggest a book or two that might assist you?" Jenkins said his hands back to work on the contraption, which Cassandra now saw was a small metallic bird.

"That sounds fantastic, thank you Jenkins." Cassandra smiled as she started to patter on about how different her gift was now. Oh yes, it would take quite a while but just getting Jenkins back on better talking terms with her made Cassandra feel more relaxed than she had in a long while, apparently Jenkins felt much the same as he soon started smirking around the Annex again and gently snarking off to the boys.


	2. Chapter 2

It was only a couple weeks later when Cassie found herself sitting by Jenkins again. They'd just gotten the library back to its restored and safe self after the whole Apep mess and the young librarian was exhausted. They all were. Flynn and Eve had finally left to have a small vacation for real this time, really it was just them going to a more private section of the library to unwind. Jacob was secluding himself in some corner of the Annex working on some new papers that had just hit him and Ezekiel was off being well Ezekiel. That left really only Cassandra and Jenkins left kind of tottering around the Annex.

Cassandra sighed as she turned to look over at the clippings book again across the room from where she and Jenkins sat, the later working again on some mechanical contraption. This time one Ezekiel had asked him to work on.

"Cassandra a watched pot -"

"Never boils. I know! I just. I don't like waiting. It's like what happened right before Apep and it's worrisome."

"Calm before the storm, Hmm? Yes well how about a change of scenery then. You have your phone I assume should the others need you, so how you go out and enjoy yourself." Jenkins said smiling kindly at the younger woman.

"I'd be just as fine here with you, unless you want to join me for an afternoon out, Jenkins?" Cassandra prompted gently. Since their last talk a few days before Apep tried to release pure chaos the duo had been talking more, to be fair it was only discussing how Cassandra's new gift worked and him helping her find a few teas and meditations that helped her. The extent of them being around each other though had grown to include the two liking to work on things in the others company, Cassandra often joined Jenkins in his lab while he worked; sometimes to help him and sometimes merely to sit in the corner desk he cleared off for her so she could read or work on her own projects. They'd come almost inseparable by that extent. One seemed to always be around the other without fail. Jenkins and Cassandra had even taken to doing other hobbies together after a talk resulted in both finding out they enjoyed yoga and similar meditations. It was quite common to find them near the center of the large library in the forestry wing doing a yoga routine, or in the level where Nessie was housed meditating by the waters of her pool. Little did the pair notice though when Eve, or one of the boys caught them doing such things.

"And where would you even suggest we go then Cassandra?" Jenkins said not even looking up as he had moved to look back at his project. Cassandra could hear the teasing tone in his voice, it made her smile to know Jenkins was slowly coming back to them. She remembered the fear and anger and pain they'd all gone through recently and it still stung upon remembering how they found Jenkins and the quick talk they had after freeing the Caretaker.

Cassandra grasped the taller man's elbow fiercely as they followed Jake and Ezekiel out of DOSA's compound but stopped them slightly away as Ezekiel worked on a door up ahead.

"Jenkins are you sure you're alright? That box looked like it hurt you a lot. I'm so sorry we didn't realize it sooner and even hurt you at all. I'm so glad you're okay." She said hurriedly wanting to get it all out but knowing they still needed to keep moving.

 _Jenkins looked at the small woman before him and smiled as his hand moved to hers and he held it tightly. He had seen her face through the glass first when they found him in that box and he felt the relief that had washed over his body after the pure anger that had been housed there most of the afternoon. If anyone could free him it was Cassandra, Ezekiel and Jacob._

 _They were much smarter than most and had more of Jenkins' faith than he'd ever admit openly. And then when he'd seen Cassie's face light up at something about the key's to his cage he felt his heart rate speed up at the thought of being able to make sure his Librarians where okay soon. Then suddenly there were alarms going off and the air around him hurt his lungs. He knew it wouldn't really kill him unless it compressed the air into nothing but God it still hurt like hell. What hurt worse though, he thought, was seeing Cassandra's suddenly worried and scared face tears obvious at the back of her eyes when she looked at him. That was something he remembered he didn't like in the slightest and here he had been the cause of it again._

 _The caretaker was soon drawn out of his musings when Jake and Ezekiel motioned for the other two to hurry up and follow them. It was another twenty minutes before the group was finally out of DOSA's underground facility and heading back to the Annex in some car that the boys had hotwired with Cassandra and Jenkins in the back sitting close together that Jenkins was finally able to respond to her earlier words._

"Mis Cil- Cassandra. I am fine, immortal remember? It did hurt but I don't blame that on you, I blame that on DOSA and Col. Baird. Are you okay though? I saw your face and I just want to make sure you are okay?" Jenkins said his hand on her smaller wrist again. He looked at her, worry in his eyes as he watched her. Cassandra smiled nodding and moving her hand to hold his. Leave it to Jenkins to be more concerned with Cassandra's wellbeing than his own after being trapped in a death box. But that angry tone when he had said Baird had scared her. She knew that Jenkins was usually in control of his emotions but it scared her when she could feel the angry come off him in waves.

"Cassandra? Are you alright?" Jenkins asked looking at her fully now the tools that were in his hand now on the table as he hand turned to her. Realizing she hadn't answering the older man she smiled when the idea of where to go finally struck her.

"I'm fine Jenkins. How about we go to Cornwall? Or even Somerset. You told me once we found out who you were that you liked the countryside there. Perhaps you can show me some of it. Other than that first trip with the Serpent brotherhood I've never really explored those areas yet." Cassie said excitedly her eyes never leaving Jenkins as he looked up at the young woman, his finger going to rest on top of his lips a clear sign he was thinking before he nodded and got up.

"Well it's early spring yes? About to be summer months here? Which means it should be similar weather there, which means the best would probably be the original spot where the Ladies of the Lake started. Well rather were the original Lady lived. Not many actually go there due to it being in a moor, Bodmin Moor, to be exact. And then I can possibly hook us up a door or get a car and we can go visit Tintagel Castle. Arthur never was too fond of the home of his birth, especially after finding out how he came to be, but he still let those of us who wished for some solitude to stay there. I often found it very soothing to be in a castle built by such a rocky coast. Despite its trepid history." Jenkins explained as he got up and went to the coat rack that was nearly by his desk that the pair were at. "I'd still highly suggest we take some jackets and perhaps both go change into some more appropriate clothes for hiking and such long walking activities while I go grab the remote for the back door." Jenkins smiled at Cassandra as she nodded.

It took her merely twenty minutes before she was back in the main room of the Annex, Jenkins waiting there for her in an outfit that was similar to the one he had worn when they all got trapped in the underground super collider facility. The only notable difference was instead of a peachy pink tie he had worn he was wearing a green floral patterned tie that was similar to her own floral dress that day. It seemed his outdoor attire included changing his tie from the purple one he had on earlier. Cassandra smiled up at him as he handed her the thicker jacket she kept in the main Annex like many of the others.

"Alright than Cassandra, the door is open and I have a remote to it as well. Shall we be on our way for a tour of my old haunts?" Jenkins prompted the young woman causing a small chuckle out of them both as Cassandra nodded and she felt him loop her arm through his as they walked through the door. Unlike the rest of them Jenkins seemed to not be too bothered by the jumping and so he steadied her easily. Cassie's breathe still was knocked out of her though as they walked from the Annex's main room and then into a beautiful scene of the ruins of Tintagel Castle up upon a cliff over the sea, only made better by the calm but playful look that she noticed adorned her companion's face.


End file.
